Bristol should scrap its “unachievable” target of building 3,300 new homes each year, according to Labour and Green councillors. The government-set housing target could soon be scrapped by Bristol City Council, in a bid to protect green spaces from development.
Bristol City Council is currently drawing up its new Local Plan, a crucially important document that sets out how many new homes should be built up until 2040, and where huge new housing estates or office blocks, for example, will be built.
Part of the new Local Plan includes finding enough plots of land to meet the city’s housing target. This part is important because if the council doesn’t find enough land, developers get much more freedom to build where they like with less of a say from local politicians and residents.
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Big cities across the country were given an extra high housing target by the government in 2020, following the Conservative manifesto in 2019 to build 300,000 new homes a year. This means each city must build enough homes for its forecasted population growth, plus an extra 35% uplift on top of that. With this uplift, Bristol’s housing target would be about 3,300 a year.
During a cabinet meeting, Cllr Nicola Beech, cabinet member for strategic planning, said: “It’s slightly soul-destroying to be planning for a city’s future based on the manifesto commitment of a prime minister from two prime ministers ago. Until this weekend, that number had not been confirmed by the current government but Michael Gove [Levelling Up Secretary] came out on Saturday to say they remain committed to delivering 300,000 homes a year.
“It’s worth noting that the only reason this 35% uplift manifested itself in the top 20 cities in the country was because when they did the maths on the housing need algorithm, it didn’t equal 300,000 homes a year.
“What I would prefer to do, and the proposal we’ll be consulting on in a few weeks, is that actually we should take an evidence-based approach to our housing growth, considering the land that does exist in the city, rather than a top-down approach which comes from a government manifesto that I don’t think anyone ever truly believed would be met.”
Next week councillors will debate scrapping this 35% uplift, and instead take an “evidence-based approach”. A motion put forward by Green Cllr Tony Dyer suggests the council lower its housing target, protecting green spaces from developers, while still building 1,000 affordable homes each year. Councillors will vote on his motion on November 8.
Instead of following the government-set target, the council could commission a study exploring the evidence of how much new housing is needed in Bristol. The council would then approach the government with this lower target, although it’s unclear whether the government would accept the changes.
Cllr Dyer said: “Bristol’s Local Plan needs to be based on evidence not the whims of Conservative politicians. An unreachable housing target that does not accurately reflect Bristol’s need will put at risk many of the positive and forward thinking policies that Bristol wishes to adopt. This includes setting goals that will enable us to tackle the climate and ecological emergencies and the needs of those on our housing waiting list.
“We’re calling for an approach to housing numbers in Bristol that is evidence-based and reflects the levels of need and what the city can realistically deliver, rather than a number based on the whim of Tory MPs in Westminster.
“It is not an anti-development motion — it clearly recognises the need for housing, and calls for the council to support proposals to deliver 1,000 affordable homes per year. But the present government target of 67,000 homes — over 3,300 per year — is well beyond what Bristol has been able to deliver over a similar time scale at any point in the last half century or so, possibly even before then — it is simply unachievable in a city with a very limited supply of land to build on.”
